Social development: family protection draft law is still a draft that can be worked on in a Societal partnership.
During a seminar organized by Act for Alternative Dispute Resolution on Tuesday, under the title "The Law of family protection from Violence”, the Ministry of Social Development, represented by the Director General of Legal Affairs at the Ministry, Professor Khouloud Abdel Khalek, confirmed that the Family Protection Law was still a draft that could be worked on in a societal partnership.
Professor Abdel-Khalek stressed the importance of family protection from violence law and its aim to preserve family cohesion, which came in response to a societal need confirmed by the statistics of the PCBS.
Regarding the enactment of the law, Abdel-Khalek said: "We have conducted consultations over the years to develop the family protection from violence law with government and civil society institutions." She added, "What is meant by the agreement measures is that not every family dispute has to be addressed to the judicial authorities. There are interventions to be done by the family protection counselor, and in the event of any objection to that, the victim heads to the police and the judiciary."
Abdel-Khalek emphasized that there was still time to foster a societal dialogue, and suggested encouraging dialogue in universities, Sharia colleges and for citizens, and she emphasized that the law must be read and understood before engaging in a dialogue about it.
For her part, the legal advisor at the Ministry of Women Affairs, Professor Souna Nassar, confirmed that violence is what breaks the family and not the presence of the law, and working on the law is a societal demand and not a governmental demand.
She added that the draft law is based on the Basic Law and the Penal Code, and its goal is to preserve the family fabric through awareness and through the procedures stipulated in the law to integrate the victim into society.
She explained: "Family protection from violence draft law was worked on in 2004 and was presented to the ministry cabinet in 2013, prior to Palestine’s accession to all international agreements, specifically CEDAW."
On his side, the director of the Center for Human Rights and Democracy Media, Shams Umar Rahal, stressed that the government should provide security and justice to the people through a fair judiciary, social affairs, and external security.
He added: "The law is a societal need and there is a need for other laws that regulate people's affairs."
Rahal criticized the culture of insulting and attacking others due over differences in opinions, and added: "No one denies the importance of societal discussion of the draft law and the work of a round table without insults. Whenever there is societal debate and political and sincere will to work, we will succeed without fanaticism. "
On the other hand, lawyer and human rights activist, Bilal Mahfouz, emphasized that the ministries that had discussions with women’s organizations over the years excluded opponents and the Sharia court from discussing the project. He added: "The decision is a law that violates Islamic law ... It is based on the principle of natural law and absolute equality between women and men to the degree of similarity and conformity in all aspects of life, and this is problematic because Islamic law works to achieve justice, not equality."
Mahfouz added: "The law is based on the imperative of conflict in order for women to obtain their rights, and the principle of transgression is one of the requirements of CEDAW, which is contrary to the burden of proof theory in the Evidence law."
It is worth mentioning that dozens of extremists hacked the seminar in an attempt to prevent its continuation by displaying disruptive music and inappropriate photos that lasted for two minutes before re-controlling the seminar and expelling the hackers and preventing the presence of more of them, after the debate intensified between the supporters of the law and those opposing it.
A first session of the seminar itself was held two weeks ago to discuss the enactment of the Law on the Protection of Family from Violence, interspersed with an intensification of discussion and recommendations for expanding the discussion circle to include government representatives. As a result, the second session was held in the presence of representatives of the Ministry of Women Affairs and the Ministry of Social Development.
The seminar discussed the enactment of family protection from violence law in Palestine in the presence of the Director General of Legal Affairs in the Ministry of Social Development, Professor Khuloud Abdel Khaleq, the Legal Adviser in the Ministry of Women Affairs Professor Sona Nassar, the lawyer and human rights activist Mr. Bilal Mahfouz, and Director of the media center for Human Rights and Democracy, Shams Professor Omar Rahal, in addition to dozens of citizens who were divided between supporters and opponents. The seminar included a three-hour discussion.
The seminar helped to reduce the gap between the government and citizens opposed to the project, and she called in a letter of thanks sent to ACT after the seminar to continue in similar seminars to engage the largest number of local community vehicles in order to reach a final drafting of the law, stressing that the Family Protection Law is a draft that was not yetdefinitive.
The seminar recommended the completion of the discussion and the involvement of the Sharia judiciary, the attorneys association, and the Palestinian Central of Statistics, and the need to deepen the debate more broadly because the law affects every family in society. It also recommended continuing awareness-raising about the dangers of domestic violence on society as a shared national responsibility.
